“Jesu, as Thou art our Saviour”
I have several CDs which provide musical-spiritual accompaniment in preparing liturgies and homilies during this holy season.
Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” has pride of place, as it takes me from the first days of Christmas through New Year’s Day and culminates on the feast of Epiphany. But another favorite is the King’s College Choir’s rendition of Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols.”
On this particular recording (Argo), a wonderful bonus is the young Britten’s lovely “A Boy Was Born” — a setting of mostly anonymous early English poems and hymns. Here is the text for the deeply simple “Jesu, as Thou art our Saviour:”
Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, Jesu: save us all through Thy virtue.
Jesu, as Thou art our Saviour, that Thou save us from dolour! Jesu is mine paramour: Blessed be Thy name, Jesu.
Jesu was born of a may, upon Christemas Day. She was may beforn and ay: Blessed be Thy name, Jesu.
Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, Jesu: save us all through Thy virtue.
Fr. Imbelli –
Thanks for reminding me of the Britten work. My college festival choir sang it There is no more joyful music. For me it’s on a par with Handel’s Messiah. Tears actually come tomy eyes remembering it.
He came all so stille
Like dew in Aprill
That falleth on the grass
. . .
Mother and maiden
Was never one but she
Well may such a lady
God’s Mother be.
. . ,
Hmm. Second thoughts tell me we sang the Ralph Vaughn Williams Festival of Christmas Carols. Or was it Williams’ Fantasy of Christmas Carols? Whatever. . .
Fr. Imbelli, thanks for writing about “A Ceremony of Carols”. We sang it in Madrigals my senior year of high school. In an era in which “traditional Christmas songs” conjure thoughts of Bing Crosby or Burl Ives, it was somewhat of a revelation to learn 20th-century harmonies, wedded to medieval texts.
The local classical radio station, WFMT, plays it during the so-called “holiday season” from time to time, although it’s been several years since I’ve heard it (perhaps no recordings have been released recently). Along with “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, it’s something I particularly listen for as I’m driving to the mall, puttering around the kitchen, wrapping gifts for Santa in the dead of night, etc.
Ann, the text you quoted is from the Britten work, although perhaps Vaughn Williams also set it. You may have inadvertantly skipped a line, I believe it’s:
He came all so stille
Where his mother was
Like dew in Aprille
That falleth on the grass
(The way the author of this text takes the The Rorate Coeli / Isaiah imagery and transforms it into a Marian text is, in my opinion, wonderful!)
Do you recall another carol, “This little babe, so few days old, is come to rifle Satan’s fold”? Simple but thrilling polyphany.
All of the texts are interesting. Found a web site here that has them:
http://www.californiaboyschoir.org/britten003.html